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Between Ourselves: Michelle Fox-Phillips

by Jessica Carreras

Michelle Fox-Phillips is the co-founder of Transgender Detroit, which is hosting its annual Transgender Day of Empowerment on May 15 at Affirmations LGBT community center in Ferndale. The 61-year-old Warren activist hopes to honor the transgender community and promote education.

1) Why did you begin Transgender Detroit?
My late wife Jamie Phillips-Fox and I started Transgender Detroit in 2005 after serving on the board of Transgender Michigan. The transgender community is vastly underserved and we both felt that the transgender community needs support in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb County.

2) How did Transgender Day of Empowerment get started?
One of our former board members, Tina Seitz, read an article about the same event being held in California. There they have their annual dinner to honor those people in the transgender community. Here in Detroit we decided to have a series of workshops to empower the transgender individual and to educate the LGB and ally communities about our community. This will be the fourth year that we are having this event.

3) What can attendees expect from this year's event?
People can expect a variety of speakers talking about legal issues, transitioning at work, transgender youth and how to make their voices heard. Because this is a pivotal year for politics, we need to motivate the transgender community to vote and to contact their representatives in Lansing and Washington, D.C. in regard to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and anti-bullying.
What is really exciting is our diverse panel of gender-variant individuals from the Latino/a community, as well as MTF, FTM gender queer and African-American communities. There will also be a wide variety of vendor tables for different organizations that have never participated in Transgender Day of Empowerment.

4) Tell me a little about your other volunteer work.
Since I came out of the closet – meaning identifying as a transgender women – in 1998, I have worked with a number of organizations.
When I came to Affirmations I was the first transgender volunteer. When I first started volunteering, I worked the helpline and, along with Jamie, we did in-service education about the transgender community.
I have also, for the last seven years, been on the planning committee for the Affirmations Big Bash. It was there that I started the support group Transgender Rap.
I have also started a second support group at PFLAG Detroit for family and friends of transgender individuals, and I'm also on the board of PFLAG Detroit.
Currently I'm serving on the Triangle Pride Pac to make sure they have a transgender presence. I also have worked with the victim's assistance program at Triangle involving a transgender victim. I have, in the past, been on the boards of Transgender Michigan and Crossroads.
When it warrants, I write opinion pieces for BTL.

5) What are you hoping Transgender Detroit gives to the local transgender community?
Eventually we would like to provide a variety of services, like legal advice and maybe provide the money for anyone who cannot afford a legal name change. Our organization would also do advocacy work for the transgender community. With the help of other organizations, we hope to provide medical help – i.e. hormones – for little or no cost.
Some of the events that we have helped so far are the Transgender Day of Remembrance, as well as a potluck dinner for those who have no one on Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. As for advocacy, we organized along with Triangle and Affirmations to have the Buju Banton concert canceled and to have a replacement concert.
Everything that Transgender Detroit does is to be totally inclusive of all communities.

For more information on Transgender Detroit, visit http://www.transgenderdetroit.org.

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